Workouts

I've never been a big workout guy, a gym rat, a bodybuilder. I've never felt the need; I didn't work out or lift weights at all until college, and even then I didn't utilize the free gym facilities on campus, I focused more on basketball and games, games with a ball (I've always posited that I was a dog or squirrel in a past life, where if I see a ball rolling around I want to go and get it and play with it. It's just an irresistible urge.

Bodybuilding, is just not in my genes. I see people at the gym and I say, wow what a waste of time. I hear people say " I benched 400 yesterday and wonder if that's ounces, pounds, or kilograms. I respect people who work out constantly and aim to get stronger and stronger and reach loftier goals, but I just can't maintain that type of pace: I find that it's way too easy to get out of the habit if you go on vacation or something and have to build oneself back up over time, plus I get too much enjoyment out of running and purely cardio exercises and not nearly enough from just "pumping iron." That said, I've had the same set of 40-lb barbells and a set of stools in my various apartments I've lived in since 2010, and I've been able to use them every 2 or 3 days to maintain a healthy-looking figure (the shoulder and arms and chest are noticeable). For me it beats the gym: I know I'm the only one who needs to use the weights and I don't have to "work in" with everyone else, I don't have to waste time driving to a gym and money paying for a gym, and I don't have to see other dudes who are bigger and more jacked than I am. Works for me.


Situps- do they do anything? In my guilty state of watching TV at night, I often bargain with myself to do some sort of productive activity while killing time, and situps become the default solution: I do sets of 20 until 100. I've always wondered what a six-pack would look like, but that would mean having to completely compromise my diet as well to avoid belly fat, and I've never had enough motivation to go that far. Situps therefore go mostly wasted at last for abdomen muscles and being able to show anything off, but they do cut down a bit on the fat around the waist, I figure.


Best things about working out:

1.) feeling accomplished afterwards.
2.) ending the last set of your workout.
3.) checking out yourself in the mirror the day after, or a week after. It is certainly encouraging (not that I have a very toned body, but it is fun to be able to check the "athletic/ toned" body type on my online dating profile, whether or not I'm exaggerating or not.
4.) feeling a little stronger and translating that little bit of strength to other sports like throwing just a little harder in dodgeball.
5.) Avoiding looking like a chicken with no arm muscles whatsoever. I used to have no muscles. Now I have a little muscle; I'd like to keep it that way.

Ultimately, I don't the average human being has too much time to work out and look good, even in Los Angeles (unless you're a model, in which case, congratulations). I try to maximize my workouts: do a few sets, make sure I get my cardio in, do situps while watching TV, call it a night. It's worked for 10 years so far.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan